Mayor Tory says Scarborough will benefit most from transit improvements

Mayor John Tory spent his 50th day on the job fielding questions at a special town hall meeting in Scarborough on Tuesday dubbed #AskMayorTory.

The Rogers TV and CityNews event took place at the Scarborough Civic Centre and was hosted by CityNews political specialist Cynthia Mulligan and Toronto Star columnist Royson James.

Tory began the night by touching on some of the positive changes he’s seen at city hall since taking over from Rob Ford.

“(The city) had suffered some harm to its reputation by some of the goings on at city hall and I think that also led to a certain lack of productivity…I sense a new spirit of co-operation at city hall,” he said.

He also touted his first budget, which includes $95 million for transit.

“Scarborough will be the substantial beneficiary of the improvement in transit service,” he said, drawing applause from the crowd.

When asked about breaking his campaign promise to freeze TTC fares in 2015, Tory said the 10-cent hike he’s proposed was a necessary evil he didn’t foresee while campaigning, and called it the “right thing to do.”

“I had not understood the full scale of the service reductions that had taken place (under Mayor Ford),” he admitted.

“I will expect people to be a little bit disappointed (by the fare hike) because I understand that.”

He further endeared himself to the Scarborough crowd by balking at a question asking if he would reverse the subway plan in favour of LRTs.

“I don’t want to reopen this debate and have the city go through…additional years of new debates,” he stressed. “We are going to build the Scarborough subway. Period.”

Five interesting things we learned during #AskJohnTory

  • Tory said he is open to a ranked balloting system and is not adverse to term limits.
  • The mayor said he wouldn’t bring back the car registration tax.
  • He doesn’t support a fourth stop on the Scarborough subway extension. “I support the current plan.”
  • He would rather get SmartTrack up and running, than see the Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup.
  • He prefers his mother’s cooking to his wife’s.

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